Thursday, May 2, 2013

Padding the Walls

I know that you will think I've come unhinged, but we really are expecting snow. Three to five inches and my sanity is, seriously, hanging by a thread. I told Bill last week, "When people ask how I am, I am going to say, 'I am not fine.' Because I'm not." So I have retreated a bit to small, dark spaces and started thinking about the bathroom that we recently finished in the basement. I kept the original turquoise sink and toilet because, well, they're turquoise and what could be more fabulous? Now I get to paint the walls.

This page from a recent Serena & Lily catalogue caught my eye. I thought this might be a clever way to use the four-hundred-and-fifty-two sample jars of paint that I have languishing in my basement.

Then, somewhere trolling the internet, I ran across an image of Cecil Beaton's powder room and, truly, I cannot imagine anything more charming than guests tracing their hands on the wall.

I had asked the boys (it is the basement, so mostly their domaine and their crowd) what they thought about my painting frames around squares of chalkboard paint and then their friends could draw their own pictures on the walls. "They wouldn't do anything crude would they? Naughty?" I asked. All three, in three different exchanges said, "Yeah, mom, of course they would." And I thought with annoyance not for the first time, "Girls wouldn't."

So I've settled on something in-between. I think I am going to paint replicas of some of my favorite paintings, something of an Abstract Expressionists hall of fame, and leave a few blank with the tempting chalkboard centers. Naughtiness be damned.

What a clever idea! I love the tongue-in-cheek reference to writing on the bathroom wall with the chalkboard paintings mixed in with the paintings you are going to do. Can't wait to see what you devise and what the boys come up with as well. Should they get a little carried away, just remind yourself that art is meant to disturb. ;-)

I hear you. I am a reader in Chicago and this winter has left me hanging on by a thread. Not fine. The (very) few nice days we have had this spring aren't close to sufficient to fill the coffers of well-being. One errant snowstorm right now might just topple the whole house of cards. Love your bathroom ideas but, as a mother of two girls, not quite as confident as you that the walls would stay PG.

Your chalkboard paint with frames is such a fun idea! And the guys can be the ones with the wet sponge to erase the [inappropriate] stuff. re the snow - better than the fires here. California no longer has a "fire season"; it's all year long

Patricia O'Dell Shackelford

aka Mrs. Blandings

Come On In

I wandered into one of my favorite shops eight years ago to buy a dog ball and, through a very indirect route, ended up here writing about decorating, my family and life. My posts are not as frequent as they used to be, but you're welcome to drop in anytime.

What's that? Why "Mrs. Blandings?" Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is a 1940's movie starring Cary Grant and Myrna Loy chronicling their adventures in renovating. In the movie, Loy delivers an iconic description of paint colors that nearly every design aficionado knows by heart. She is my muse.